Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision for the Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment/Environmental Impact Statement for Recreational Target Shooting in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, Arizona

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the availability of the Record of Decision (ROD) for the approved Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment/Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Recreational Target Shooting in the Sonoran Desert National Monument (SDNM) in Arizona.

The planning area covers nearly 496,400 surface acres of south-central Arizona and lies within Maricopa and Pinal Counties. Population centers adjacent to the planning area include metropolitan Phoenix, and the communities of Ajo, Goodyear, Buckeye, Gila Bend, Mobile, and Maricopa. The planning area encompasses Federal- and State-administered lands as well as private lands. The BLM's authority is limited to BLM-managed public lands and federally-owned minerals within the planning area. The BLM manages 486,400 surface acres of public lands in the planning area, as well as 461,000 acres of (sub-surface) mineral estate. The State of Arizona manages 3,900 surface acres in the planning area, with the remaining 6,100 surface acres being privately owned land.

As a result of continued work with stakeholders and in response to comments from the public and cooperating agencies, the BLM determined that approximately 2,600 acres of additional land in the area is suitable for recreational target shooting. As such, the ROD approves a modified version of Alternative C, which identifies approximately 435,700 acres of land as available for recreational target shooting in the SDNM. The additional approximately 2,600 acres are located along the northern boundary of the SDNM within the Juan Bautista de Anza Recreation Management Zone, and were analyzed in Alternative A as available for recreational target shooting.

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